Pinkertons

The Pinkertons are an American private security guard and detective agency which was founded in 1850 by Scottish immigrant detective Allan Pinkerton. During the American Civil War, Pinkerton thwarted an assassination attempt on Abraham Lincoln in Baltimore, and Lincoln later hired Pinkerton agents for his own private security. Pinkerton was progressive in hiring women and minorities, but, during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, business leaders hired Pinkertons to infiltrate unions, supply guards, keep strikers and unionists out of factories, and recruit goon squads to intimidate workers. In the 1892 Homestead Strike, 7 Pinkertons and 9 steelworkers were killed during a Pinkerton attempt to break up a strike. In 2003, Pinkerton was purchased by Securitas AB.